Five Big Strategies to Gain a Bigger Market Slice in 2012

No one has a crystal ball into what 2012 will continue to bring for business, which is why we all look back for context and ahead to try and project best strategies going forward. It’s tough not to see a few big trends. Marketing has taken on social media, or online media, as some prefer to call it, which has become the basis for most pre-sales decision-making.

Regardless of your industry or your key niches, the objective of your strategic market planning should be to deliver the most impact in the least amount of space. Micro-messages out-pull longer text explanations. Within seconds, your key prospects determine if they are in or out of here!

Here are five strategies to ensure you get the biggest slice of your market:

1) Decrease the number of messages.

Be painfully obvious what you are offering (price reduction one-time-only sale, new product introduction, free download, or providing a page turn to the next logical reading place). Wherever and whenever possible, be a minimalist by eliminating what is not needed. This leaves only what is needed and makes for fast and energetic reading.

2) Emphasize visually what’s important.

This is a lot like point #1 applied in a visual context. Are your communications obvious and impactful? Do they make it easy to understand the five all-important answers to the questions who, what, where, when and why? Emphasize what’s important and eliminate the rest. Resist the urge to oversell your brand.
3) Build trust.

Most companies are not mega brands that can rely on the big-brand campaigns of the past from the likes of McDonald’s, Apple, IBM, etc. So your marketing and communications need to offer direct assurances that your brand is one that can be trusted.

One powerful way to accomplish this is to provide consistency throughout your online and downloadable communications. A logical and consistent creative footprint demonstrates you have predetermined what your customers need to know about you and that you have thought through their needs.

Tom Marin is the managing partner of MarketCues.com and provides corporate and brand strategy to organizations of all sizes. He has an extensive background in the graphic arts, printing, publishing and media industries. Marin is an accredited member of the national and international chapters of the Business Marketing Assn., is a (CBC) certified business communicator and a past marketing chair of the Chicago chapter.